Hope and Expectancy: When I Fall I Shall Arise - Micah 7:8

By Robert Johnston

Before Moses wrote the first five books of today’s Bible, the people who survived the great flood in Noah’s day were told about the ten generational divisions of time ordained by God for mankind to live on this earth. The beginning and end of each division—from Adam in the book of Genesis to the Great White Throne Judgment day—are found in our Bible today. It has been said that the prophets in Israel kept these “ten generational divisions of time” writings so that they might ascertain and confirm prophetic events. Many of these prophecies have already been confirmed, but a few remain to be fulfilled. Hope and Expectancy is about these divisions of time as found in the Bible. Seven have been fulfilled, and three await fulfillment. Discover the current division of time and the event that will mark its end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Jun 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781489723611

Robert Johnston

ROBERT JOHNSTON is the author of three other books: Sanctification, The Last Trumpet, and Leviticus. He completed Bible Study at Jimmy Swaggart Bible College in 1988 and ministered on Christian Television and taught the Bible to businessmen in his community in the following years. He retired from his business as a Certified Public Accountant in 2005 and now writes Bible-based books and articles calling people back to the righteousness and the faith once delivered to us by our forefathers.

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Copyright © 2019 Robert Johnston.

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"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org"

Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used with permission.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-4897-2362-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2360-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-2361-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908715

LifeRich Publishing rev. date:  06/29/2019

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Finale (Omega)

Chapter 1   Walking with God

The First Division of Time: From Adam’s Sin to Enoch’s Translation (3950–2963 BC)

Chapter 2   Submission to God

The Second Division of Time: From Enoch’s Translation to the Division of the Nations (2963–2192 BC)

Chapter 3   On Trial Before the Cosmos

The Third Division of Time: From the Division of the Nations to the Time of Isaac (2192–1901 BC)

Chapter 4   Married to God

The Fourth Division of Time: From the Time of Isaac to the Call of Moses (1901–1496 BC)

Chapter 5   The Kingdom of God

The Fifth Division of Time: From the Call of Moses to the Building of Solomon’s Temple (1496–1016 BC)

Chapter 6   The Choice

The Sixth Division of Time: From the Building of Solomon’s Temple to Its Destruction (1016–586 BC)

Chapter 7   God’s Great Intervention

The Seventh Division of Time: From the Destruction of the First Temple to the Dispersion of the Jewish People (586 BC to AD 70)

Chapter 8   The Age of the Holy Spirit

The Mystery of the Great Parenthesis in Time: From the First Days of the Church to Its Fullness (AD 70 to the Great Falling Away)

Chapter 9   Great Tribulation

Enoch’s Eighth Division of Time: From the Falling Away of the Church and Israel’s Restoration to the Second Coming of Christ (AD 1948 to the Future Day of the Lord)

Chapter 10   He Shall Reign

The Ninth Division of Time: From the Day of the Lord to the Great White Throne Judgment (Date Unknown to 1,000 Years Plus a Short Season)

Chapter 11   Into Eternity

The Tenth Division of Time: A Short Season, the Judgment, and the New Heaven and Earth (Time Unknown to Time Unending)

Epilogue

Bibliography

DEDICATION

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As my wife, Sandra, and I draw near to the close of our time on this earth, in the time period God has chosen for us to live, we want to thank Him for the wonderful family He has given us. This book is dedicated to all our children: Craig, Kim, and Robyn; our grandchildren: Steven, David, Britney, Candice, and Chad, and our great grandchildren: Alex, Abel, and Bryce.

PREFACE

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The Bible remains the best-selling book in the world, yet few people have read it. Usually it sits on a shelf without being opened; when it is opened, it is often not understood and quickly closed again. First Corinthians 2:14 explains why some people eagerly grasp the Word of God whereas others do not, saying, The natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them … because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated (AMP). In other words, a person must first be born again. The human spirit within every man and woman must have a new birth before they can gain spiritual understanding.

I was born into a churchgoing family and attended church regularly. At age sixteen I was encouraged by my Sunday school teacher to make a public profession of faith and be baptized. The pressure to do this weighed on me to the point that I just wanted to get it over with, though it was embarrassing for me to walk before the congregation and be baptized. However, the following day was wonderful as I walked several blocks to my part-time job in a grocery store. It seemed like the sky was a brighter blue, the trees and grass were a greener green, and the birds were singing more cheerfully. Mostly, I felt like a burden had been lifted off me.

Thirty years passed. I served in the army, became a ballroom dance instructor, got married, had children, completed college, and worked as a certified public accountant. I became a partner in a CPA firm and an officer in the State Society of CPAs. Then age forty-seven hit me.

Had I been saved at age sixteen? I believe so, but nagging thoughts had dogged me all those intervening years. I remember a song recorded by Peggy Lee in 1969 titled Is That All There Is? The lyrics seemed to respond to my nagging question: If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball. They described what I had been doing over those years. The nagging, as described in Francis Thompson’s 1893 poem The Hound of Heaven, was telling me there is more to life than this and there is more to salvation than this.

One evening I opened the Amplified Bible, and Romans 6:3 stood out like a flashing neon light to me: Are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? My spirit rose up inside me with an emphatic Yes! Now the Lord had my attention, and I read further. As I read, a conviction came upon me that I had not died (to my fleshly desires) with Christ when I was baptized. If I had, the desires that were leading me astray would’ve had no power over me, for when a man dies he is freed (loosed, delivered) from (the power of) sin (Romans 6:7 AMP). Right then and there, I reckoned myself to be dead, and I thought, how can I live? I knew immediately: by every word and direction from the mouth of God.

From that day forward, at age forty-seven, I committed to do nothing of my own self-accord, but to seek only what God wanted me to do. It was a dramatic change of direction for me, but it helped that all my partners in our CPA firm were Christians. After I talked with them, we made it a policy to hold devotionals every morning with the staff. The partners would take turns leading on different mornings.

Daily devotional pamphlets were available, and some partners used those. However, I felt like I needed to hear from God about the word he wanted me to present on my mornings. Before each of my devotionals, I searched the Bible until I found a scripture that gave me a knowing in my heart that it was the right one to speak about.

This went on for a month or two, until one day I got no feeling inside about any particular scripture that God wanted me to use the next morning. Try as I might, I found no peace about what to say. Feeling frustrated, and needing to clear my head and pray, I took a walk on a path that paralleled the river in our town. After about fifteen minutes of walking and praying, I heard a clear, audible voice behind my right ear, speaking words that I will never forget: Well, I’ll tell you, Bob, it’s a big book and it’s all good. Just open it anywhere, and I’ll show you what it means.

I looked behind me, but there was only one man a long way back. Immediately a new faith was birthed in me. I knew that God would do this. He was giving me his spirit of understanding, which I discovered is one of the six spirits of God listed in Isaiah 11:2. Jesus had all of these spirits of God when he walked on earth. I also knew I had a new purpose: to use the understanding he would give me for the furtherance of God’s kingdom on earth.

From that day forward, I had no anxiety, fear, or apprehension about interpreting or discussing any Bible scripture with any person or group. My new confidence soon led me into guest appearances on a local Christian television station, then to Bible college, and then to full-time ministry on a twenty-four-hour Christian television station in North Carolina, which lasted until the station was sold.

In this book, I want to share with you a history of the world as it relates to you. I want you to understand why you are on this earth, why you go through the things you go through, and what is being accomplished through your life. I want you to understand the future: where you are headed, and what that Day of Judgment will look like for you.

Has God bestowed any of his spirits on you? The apostle John saw there were seven Spirits of God (the seven-fold Holy Spirit) Who have been sent (on duty far and wide) into all the earth (Revelation 5:6 AMP). Perhaps he has given you the spirit of wisdom, which he gave to Bezaleel, as found in Exodus 31:3, for the task of building the tabernacle of God in the wilderness. Maybe he has given you the spirit of understanding, or his spirit of counsel, which was bestowed on judges, priests, and prophets so they could advise kings and leaders to make decisions based on God’s will and foreknowledge. Perhaps he has given you his spirit of might and power, which Jesus bestowed on his disciples and told them to use to drive out demons and to heal the sick. Do you hate sin and the evil you see destroying the people you love? If so, take a stand against sin and evil, because God may have given you his spirit called the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 8:13 says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Another is the spirit of knowledge. Proverbs 18:15 (AMP) says, The mind of the prudent is ever getting knowledge, and Proverbs 19:14 (AMP) speaks about a prudent wife, saying, A prudent wife is from the Lord. (God’s description of a prudent wife can be found in Proverbs 31:10–31 AMP.) Can you see how God sends his seven-fold Holy Spirit on duty far and wide to further his plans for humanity?

Are you using what you have been given to further God’s kingdom, or are you keeping it for yourself? Each has his own special gift from God (1 Corinthians 7:7 AMP), and 1 Timothy 4:14 says not to neglect the gift, which is in you. Know for certain that you will be judged according to what God has given you and how you used it during your generation on earth—as told by Jesus in the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14–30. Your generation has been chosen by God from the foundation of the world to overcome Satan and loosen his grip on the inhabitants of this world. As a result, you will witness Satan and his angels being thrown out of heaven by God’s angels and flung down to earth.¹

The truth is a fascinating journey. I invite you to come with me as we travel through time and peel back the layers of history and spiritual realities, so that you, too, can know why you are here and where you are going.

INTRODUCTION

READ THIS FIRST!

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When God created the world, he also planned for its end.

He is Alpha, the Beginning, and Omega, the End.

—Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 46:10, and Revelation 21:6

When I was a boy of ten or twelve, I had a dream that I was standing before God. I did not see God, but I knew it was God. There was a large projection screen in front of me, and two video reels were running simultaneously, one on the left side of the screen and the other on the right. Even though they were running extremely fast, I saw and understood them both.

On the left was my entire life as I had chosen to live it—full of self, strife, and conflict. On the right was the life God had ordained for me to live, running parallel to the life I had chosen. Full of peace instead of strife, joy instead of conflict, and contentment instead of self-gratification, it was a life worthy of being born into.

With sadness, I watched as the scenes played out and my life was gone in an instant. I had missed it all, and I felt a great sense of loss and finality, with no chance to make amends. I knew without a doubt that the fault had not been with God, but with me.²

As I grew older, I put this dream behind me and pursued things that seemed exciting, alluring, refined, and epicurean. The movies of my generation defined me. The way I smoked (sophisticated or manly), the drinks I learned about, my treatment of the opposite sex—it all came from what I saw on the big screen. I perceived myself through that lens, and my friends were the same way. I remember overhearing a conversation between my grandmother and my parents when I was about six years old. My grandmother said that movies were of Satan and would corrupt people, whereas my parents argued that movies were good and told moral stories, though they agreed to not watch movies on Sundays. I don’t know if they imagined how much Hollywood would shape my generation.

Much later in life, it seemed as if God was speaking to me through two scriptures as he began drawing me back to him. I heard a small voice saying, This is what I was telling you in that dream.

The first scripture was from Deuteronomy, where Moses describes the blessings and curses of God: See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity … I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19 NASB).

The second scripture was in the description of the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20:11–12, I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds (NASB).

It is beneficial and cleansing to begin with the end. The end of one’s life on earth is a time of sadness, but Ecclesiastes 7:1 tells us the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth, and verse 8 says the end of a thing is better than its beginning.

That dream has compelled me to do extensive research and Bible study over the last thirty years to understand God’s dealings with humankind during our short existence on this earth. It is the end of God’s creation that explains our purpose for being here.

The prophet Isaiah tells us that God has declared the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Thousands of years before Isaiah was born, a prophet named Enoch delivered writings, from the books he was shown in heaven, to the pre-flood world.

Enoch, whom many Christians know from a brief mention in Genesis, was born in the sixth generation after Adam, about 3200–3000 BC, when righteousness still dwelt on the earth. He walked close to God for 365 years before God sent angels to carry him to heaven so he could read from the tablets there, which foretold all the generations of humanity that would be born on earth and the major events that would take place in their lifetimes. Enoch read those tablets and explored heaven for 294 earth years, before he was sent back to earth for one year to write scrolls about what he had read and to teach them to his son Methuselah. Enoch’s writings were for future generations, especially a remote one existing in the last days. When Enoch’s task on earth was finished, God sent angels to take him back to heaven.

Enoch began his writings by declaring the end of this present world, saying the mountains on earth shall melt like wax before the flame, and the earth shall be wholly rent in sunder, and all that is upon the earth shall perish, and there shall be a judgment upon all (men).³

The Bible agrees with this prediction about our world’s end. So we have a question to answer: If our world is going to end in fire and judgment,⁴ what is our purpose for being here today? Why are you here? Why am I?

To find the answers to these questions, I want to take you on a journey through history. Thirty years of research have unfolded a fascinating story that reveals not only what’s gone before us, but also what lies ahead—and the reason for our own place in history as well.

If you are already familiar with the Bible, you will recognize many of the facts and people in this book, though some may be unfamiliar to you. In addition to the Bible, I have relied on many passages found in the book of Enoch, or 1 Enoch, including sections known as the book of Noah, and some from the book of Jubilees. These ancient theological writings and scrolls existed in the time of Jesus, before our present Bible was canonized. Though not many Christians are familiar with them today, they influenced Jewish thought and reveal a great deal about mankind’s history.

The writings of Enoch were the first written revelations from God to man. Enoch’s last words prophesy that in the last days, his writings will be translated faithfully and become a cause of joy, uprightness, and much wisdom to the righteous and wise.

The second written revelation from God to man was the book of Jubilees (also called the Lesser Genesis), which refers to some of Enoch’s writings and the writings of Noah. This book describes many events from the first one hundred years after the flood (2200 BC), when Noah instructed his sons about the things Enoch had taught his grandfather Methuselah, which presumably had been passed on to Noah to deliver to all the generations of the world.

The first canonized books of our present Bible are the writings of Moses, as given to him by the Lord Jehovah during Israel’s forty years in the wilderness (1496–1456 BC). These writings, called the Pentateuch, or Torah, are the foundation of our present Bible and can be found in the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Scrolls revealing God’s word to people on earth existed long before our present Bible was canonized, and I’ve attempted to bring together the stories found in those sources to give a clearer picture of our history. Only when we know where we’ve come from can we really know who we are and where we’re going, and these ancient writings offer us surprising answers.

After the flood, Noah delivered Enoch’s writings to Noah’s own children and grandchildren. We are told in the book of Jubilees that Jacob later gave all his books and the books of his fathers to Levi his son that he might preserve them and renew them for his children until this day.⁵ After Noah and Jacob died, the Lord instructed Moses and the prophets in his word, and finally the Word was delivered to the entire world by Jesus Christ when he came to give light to the Gentile (non-Jewish) nations.

But the first revelations to Enoch were not intended for the first generations of humans on earth. They were for future generations, and especially for those living in the last days before the wrath of God is poured out upon the earth. These revelations inform us that we live in a period foreknown by God from the foundation of the world, which Jesus and his disciples describe as the great falling away (2 Thessalonians 2:3 AMP). In this period, simplifying the message of salvation has diluted the full gospel message of Jesus.

It is my hope that you will discover your place in history, and that as you do, you will rediscover the full gospel message of Jesus as well. You are on this earth, at this time, for a purpose. Are you ready to discover it?

A Diluted Gospel

Today’s gospel has been diluted because it speaks of heaven but not of hell. It speaks of salvation as being saved to instead of from something. To be saved means to be rescued from hell—not saved to an inheritance. People who are saved do inherit eternal life, but they are saved from eternal torment in hell.

The preaching of fire and brimstone and the reality of hell has been relegated to the past, as something out of date in a modern, enlightened world. Harsh preaching has been replaced with a softer message of God’s love and blessings for people who are saved. Righteousness and judgment have been lost in this new, softer message, and humankind has lost the fear of God. Evil and wickedness run rampant in our streets today as they did in the days of the prophets who declared, By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil and When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Proverbs 16:6, Isaiah 26:9).

Just look at the profanity and blasphemy in the movies and on television every day. We are bombarded with promiscuous sex, unnatural relationships, homosexual acts, drug use, murders, abortion, lawlessness, attacks on God’s laws, pornography, unaccountability, rebellion against established authority, rape, stealing, strife and divisions, lying for political advantage, and a series of other evil and wicked acts. I ask you, is there any greater evidence of demonic activity than what we see today? Is this like the days of Noah when people cried out to God for deliverance?

People loathe hearing about the Day of Judgment, so many churches do not preach about it at all. They do not want to lose their congregations because of frightening messages. This was the general attitude facing Jonathan Edwards in 1741, when he preached the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, which led to the Great Awakening in the colonies of America from 1741 to 1755. Edwards also wrote a book titled The End for Which God Created the World. He was banned from preaching in many churches because they didn’t want their congregations frightened, but the fact is that the gospel truth is as much about hell as it is about heaven. On the final Judgment Day, mankind is destined to spend eternity in one of those two places.

Many people believe the gospel message ends with a call to confess their faith in order to be saved, so that they can be blessed in this life and taken to heaven someday. The salvation experience has become little more than professing belief in God and that Jesus has paid the price for all our sins, past, present, and future. Once this confession is made, as it was with me, life can go on as before without further knowledge about God or the gospel message of Christ. Little thought is given to repentance, confession, and sorrow for past and present sins, not to mention the change that must take place in one’s heart. Satan himself confesses belief in Jesus, yet most Christians believe that is enough.

We are living in a great falling-away period during which it is natural to want to feel comfortable and hear uplifting messages, sing happy songs, and forget about our sins. Preaching righteousness, sin, and judgment seems out of place. Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, they say (Isaiah 30:10). Enoch saw that God had ten divisions of time for mankind recorded in the books of heaven. These divisions reveal how God has intervened in the history of man from the beginning of time to the end of time. All our fellow men and women, living within each of these ten divisions of time, will arrive at the same destination at the same God-appointed time, to appear before God at the Great White Throne Judgment.

A person who falls away does not experience a sudden, dramatic change. Falling away begins with a prior generation that lost the gospel message and thus failed to pass it on to the next generation. It has been said that